Shelbourne Reynolds is adding to its vegetation management machinery range by launching its own flail mower line at LAMMA 2018 (Peterborough, Jan 17-18, stand R56). The firm will also be unveiling a new header trailer design.

With a working width of 2.8m and transport width of 3.0m, the FB 2800 flail mower is designed and manufactured at the firm’s Stanton, Suffolk, factory, and complements the established range of hedge trimmers also built there. The mower can be either paired with one of these machines in a front/rear combination or rear mounted on its own.

“We previously tested the water with a flail mower model imported from Italy, but our engineering designers have now created our own machine, built to match our largest hedge trimmer models,” says Neil Smith, sales and marketing director at Shelbourne Reynolds.

“That means it can cope with the sort of high-power tractors often used with our HD800 hedge trimmers, and is sufficiently robust should it come into contact with tough material or a foreign object.”

Built to a heavy-duty specification, the FBO-2800 features a double-skinned shell comprising two layers of 4mm-thick steel. From the PTO shaft, drive is transferred through a gearbox rated to take up to 235hp, depending on unit specified. Power then passes to the 220mm rotor via a series of five V-belts, rather than the more usual four, with large-diameter pulleys to maximise the amount of belt wrap and minimise any possibility of belt slippage in tough conditions. By swapping pulleys, the mower can be run using either 540rpm or 1,000rpm PTO shafts.

The front cowl has an open throat design, to ensure it can accept large amounts of material, but towards the rear this becomes narrower to create a suction effect and ensure it is completely pulverised. Material is processed by a choice of either 24 T-flails, which are 110mm-wide, or where finer mulching is required, 54 C-flails, which are 60mm-wide. Both types have a 10mm overlap. The FB 2800 also has 600mm hydraulic sideshift ability.

Also making its debut at LAMMA 2018 is a new design of trailer for the widest combine cutterbars on the market. The new trailer has been created in response to the fact that tractors, rather than combines themselves, are now most commonly used to tow headers on the road, for reasons of manoeuvrability, weight and safety.

The new TABS trailer, available for both 10.5m (35ft) and 12m (40ft) cutterbars, takes its name from the fact it features a tandem axle, brakes and steering. It offers improved manoeuvrability and road handling by eliminating the usual front bogie on header trailers of this size, being fitted instead with a leaf-sprung twin axle bogie, with both axles incorporating lockable hydraulic steering. These offer 45-degree turning, for easier control and manoeuvring than a mechanically-steered trailer.

A new I-beam chassis with tapered extensions provides greater strength and more ground clearance, and the trailer frame features a new ‘V’ locking bracket to help guide the header into place.